Supporting college and career readiness among youth who encounter significant academic and life challenges requires innovative strategies to help them envision their futures, leverage their strengths and develop dispositions that promote positive trajectories. For youth development professionals who develop and implement novel programmatic…

Now, more than ever, more adults must earn college credentials in order to earn family sustaining wages and to help fuel and sustain a robust national economy. That means that institutions of higher education must do all they can to help adult students enroll in college and complete a postsecondary credential. Achieving the Dream emphasizes a…

Several factors create a challenging environment for individuals seeking financial support to complete a postsecondary degree program. In recognition of the challenges of paying for higher education, decision-makers at the federal and state levels support college-going with public policy. Through direct institutional allocations, need and…

A doctoral research study was conducted on the job-specific information and assistance needs of beginning principals and the types of induction strategies that helped or hindered their first year in the principalship. Study subjects consisted of all individuals appointed to their first principal position in Washington or Oregon public school…

This document addresses one important state-level approach to assessing-and increasing-the value of public higher education: the setting and publicizing of clear, numerical goals for expanding student access and success. In 2005, Jobs for the Future conducted a 50-state survey of state higher education plans to determine how many states have set…

The nation faces a youth citizenry that is disengaged and lacks the necessary knowledge, skills and dispositions to participate in and carry out their civic duties. This ECS Policy Brief summarizes the state-level goals and accomplishments of the Youth Legislative Engagement project and is intended for state policymakers, education leaders and…

We review a plan that attracted the attention of public sector planners everywhere, Oregon's 1989 "Oregon Shines: An Economic Strategy for the Pacific Century". In particular, we focus on Oregon's aspirations for world-class workforce quality; a status that the state's planners argued would contribute to a host of other outcomes that…

Intended to provide background information for task force use, this set of working papers concludes with recommendations for revising the University of Oregon College of Education teacher preparation programs. Section I summarizes the concerns of Oregon educators, reports recommendations made by an ad hoc state committee and the chancellor, and…